The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband

An Asperger’s Mystery, Book #2

By E. J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen

ISBN # 978-0738743509

http://www.ejcopperman.com/

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer jerjen

Synopsis:

For Samuel Hoenig, Asperger’s isn’t so much a syndrome as it is a set of personality traits. And as the sole proprietor of a business called Questions Answered, Samuel’s put his personality traits to good use, successfully answering every question he’s ever been asked.

But when his newest client asks about the true identity of her so-called husband, Samuel recruits his former associate Janet Washburn for insight into a subject that’s beyond his grasp—marriage. Working as a team seems to be the right approach . . . until the inscrutable spouse is found dead in Samuel’s office. Feeling like he’s been taken for a fool, Samuel is more than willing to answer a new question posed by an unexpected inquirer: who killed the unfamiliar husband? (Goodreads)

Review:

Samuel Hoenig is the owner/operator of Questions Answered, a detective agency for solving questions as much as for solving mysteries.  Samuel has never heard a question that he has not wanted to answer.  So when someone comes into the office, asking who the person is she has married, Samuel wants to find the answer to that question.  When the woman explains that she met a man, supposedly had a few drinks with him, ended up marrying him and cannot remember any of these events, Samuel knows he has a new case to work on.   When the unfamiliar spouse ends up dead in Samuel’s office, he has two questions to answer: who was the spouse and who killed him.

The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read.  The author is very talented in creating humorous moments, suspenseful moments and heartfelt moments and all of these are blended together perfectly.   The mysteries are carried on well throughout the entire book and there were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing through much of the book.

The characters are well rounded and well developed.  Janet Washburn, Samuel’s assistant, is a great friend, mentor and mother figure for him when his real mother cannot be with him.  They have a great bond and reading about them working together and interacting with each other added a great dimension to the book.  But to me, Samuel steals the show once again in this second book in the series.  The descriptions of his behaviors, his reactions to situations and his taking everything literally is fascinating to read about.  I found it enthralling that I could read about his thought processes and his reactions to situations, as well as seeing his physical reactions.  I feel like I was able to get more insight into Asperger’s syndrome because you can tell that the author has done a lot of research on this topic to be able to write about it so realistically.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written mystery suspense.  This book can be read as a stand-alone book but I would recommend reading the first book in the series, The Question Of The Missing Head. That way you will get to know Samuel even better.  In my opinion, this is a series not to be missed.